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Articles by John Waiss
Sin: Rejecting Love and True Happiness
Christian morality consists in striving for love and happiness in a relationship with God in Jesus Christ. The relationship is a grace from God that naturally strengthens his family as we develop good relationships with all our siblings: everything we do to others we do to God, who loves each as his children (see Matthew 25:40,45; 1 John 5:1). Sin is the rejection of love that enslaves us to the flesh as it hurts our relationship with God.
Christ’s Merciful Humanity
Merciful beatitude is found in Jesus Christ, and one of the best ways to build up that relationship with him and live an upright life is to contemplate his Sacred Humanity. From this contemplation we learn how to act in a morally upright manner, while falling in love with God-man who “loved us to the end.” It is easier to relate to a God who becomes a needy little child like you and I were. We can easily approach him, hug and kiss him, and respond to his needs.
Becoming Mercifully Happy
As part of God’s divine pedagogy, our Lord summarizes Christian morality in His description of the Last Judgment: When the Son of man comes in his glory… he will separate one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats… the King will say to those at his right hand, “Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed...
Love Transforms Rules into Beatitudes
While love takes effort, St. Paul reminds us how it is the greatest spiritual gift: If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but don’t have love, I am a noisy gong, a clanging cymbal. If I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have the faith to move mountains but don’t have love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
The Objective Dignity of Being Loved
Good parents not only teach their children the house rules and laws, they teach them the reason behind them: love. God does the same with us by teaching us our great dignity as human persons made in His image and likeness (Genesis 1:26). The web of interdependent relationships into which we are born images the Blessed Trinity itself, with its eternal web of relationships: paternity, filiation, and communion of love. All men are called to the same end: God himself.
How to Celebrate First Holy Communion
Parents—along with Godparents, grandparents, aunts and uncles—have the great and primary responsibility of educating children in the Faith. Your example means everything to them: attending Sunday Mass each week expresses your faith, thanking God for the greatest gift his love could give: to receive him in the Blessed Sacrament. Parents can highlight the true meaning of First Holy Communion by guiding their child toward the greatness of this sacrament.
Love Goes Beyond Rules
We often portray Christian morality as something negative, a series of don’ts: Don’t kill… don’t miss Mass on Sunday… don’t lie or steal… In other words, don’t have any fun… Seeing morality as a list of arbitrary rules that restrict and control our lives makes it unattractive and repulsive.
The Divine Pedagogy of Love
Forming our conscience is key to living in Christ’s love, a “love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and sincere faith,” moving us to “wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience. [But] by rejecting conscience, certain persons have made shipwreck of their faith” (1 Timothy 1:5,18-19). To help us cultivate a good conscience and avoid “shipwrecking” our faith, the Catholic Church has built up a body of moral teachings based on God’s Word.
Resolving Doubts and Uncertainty Prudently
Just as we doubt about what or how to say something, sometimes we have doubts, uncertainty, or fears about what we should do. Forming our conscience responsibly includes developing the virtue of prudence, the habit of properly exercising the conscience, knowing when we can trust its formation and the need to act on its judgments. A prudent conscience is like well-exercised muscles that help us play a sport well.
An Action’s Moral Meaning
Each human action objectively “says” something, especially in relationship to a person we love. If I point a gun at someone and pull the trigger, even if the gun doesn’t fire, I “say” something evil to that person (doing so as a joke with an obviously toy gun or finger is not the same as doing so with a real gun that just doesn’t fire).
Forming Our Conscience
Some say: Ignorance is bliss, because it excuses them to do what really want to do. Yet only invincible ignorance of a person who has no possibility of knowing the morality of an act excuses. Such ignorance is common among small children and very uneducated people. If… the ignorance is invincible, or the moral subject is not responsible for his erroneous judgment, the evil committed by the person cannot be imputed to him. It remains no less an evil, a privation, a disorder.
The Field Hospital for our Mortal Wounds
Reconciliation is a wonderful sacrament of God’s mercy that restores a relationship killed by sin. It is a “moment of intense prayer,” “source of true interior peace,” and a way “to touch the grandeur of God’s mercy” (Pope Francis, Misericordiae Vultus, 17): God’s forgiveness knows no bounds. In the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God makes even more evident his love and its power to destroy all human sin… All of us know well the experience of sin.
Morality as a Dialogue of Love
Out of love God created Adam and Eve in his image and likeness. He asked them to obey a simple commandment as a sign of their trusting love in return: And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die” (Genesis 2:16-17).
Biblical Morality: A Story of Love and Mercy
The Bible is a love story, the story of God revealing his love for man and of man’s response to that love, making the Bible a source of moral reflection. This love story begins with God creating Adam and Eve and inviting them to freely join him in a covenant of holy love. Morality—being good or evil—is the response to that love, to accept to live in a union of hearts and wills with him or to reject him.
Pope Leo’s Message for the World Day of Peace, January 1, 2026 (part III)
The following is Part III of a message from His Holiness Pope Leo XIV for the LIX World Day of Peace. Read Part I here and Part II here. An essential service that religions must render to a suffering humanity is to guard against the growing temptation to weaponize even thoughts and words. The great spiritual traditions, as well as right reason, teach us to look beyond blood ties or ethnicity, beyond associations that accept only those who are similar and reject those who are different.
Pope Leo’s Message for the World Day of Peace, January 1, 2026 (part I)
The following is Part I of a message from His Holiness Pope Leo XIV for the LIX World Day of Peace. Read Part II here. “Peace be with you!” This ancient greeting, still in use today in many cultures, was infused with new life on the evening of Easter on the lips of the risen Jesus. “Peace be with you” ( Jn 20:19, 21) is his Word that does not merely desire peace, but truly brings about a lasting transformation in those who receive it, and consequently in all of reality.
Pope Leo’s Message for the World Day of Peace, January 1, 2026 (part II)
When we treat peace as a distant ideal, we cease to be scandalized when it is denied, or even when war is waged in its name. We seem to lack those “right ideas,” the well-considered words and the ability to say that peace is near. When peace is not a reality that is lived, cultivated and protected, then aggression spreads into domestic and public life.
Pope Leo’s Message for the World Day of Peace
This ancient greeting, still in use today in many cultures, was infused with new life on the evening of Easter on the lips of the risen Jesus. “Peace be with you” ( Jn 20:19, 21) is his Word that does not merely desire peace, but truly brings about a lasting transformation in those who receive it, and consequently in all of reality.
Preparing for Christmas with St. Joseph
St. Joseph gives us a wonderful example on how to live Advent in preparing for Christmas. God chose him to be Mary’s virginal husband and to safeguard her perpetual virginity with his life.
Christ the King: a Kingly Anointing
The Feast of Christ the King is the culmination of the Liturgical Year, reminding us of Christ and his authority, which “is not of this world” (John 18:36). It is an authority that he shares with all Christians, making “us a line of kings, priests to serve his God and Father” (Revelation 1:6). With the Sacrament of Confirmation, we are anointed kings, collaborate with him in “subjecting all things unto himself” (Philippians 3:21).
St. Francis’ Vision
Behind the main altar [of St. Mary of the Angels Church in Chicago] is a painting depicting the vision that St. Francis had in 1216. After experiencing a strong carnal temptation one night, St. Francis jumped undressed into a thorny bush outside his cell. As he landed in the bush it sprouted beautiful roses without thorns.
Praying the Rosary for Peace
The Rosary is a form of prayer closely connected to Christ through Mary, as each decade is dedicated to a particular event or “mystery” in the life of Jesus and Mary. Although some find this form of prayer scandalous, Catholics find it indispensable to our relationship with Christ, and a growing number of Protestants do too. St. John Paul II notes: “Perhaps too, there are some who fear that the Rosary is somehow unecumenical because of its distinctly Marian character.
For Peace, Mary Crushes Satan's Head in Us
Scripture prefigures Mary in many ways, beginning with Eve, the first woman and “mother of all the living.” God cursed the Serpent who conquered Eve, saying: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; she shall crush your head, and you shall bruise her heel” (Genesis 3:15, Vulgate). This foretold of the great battle between Satan and the seed of the Woman (Mary) found in Revelation 12.
Although the Bible says nothing directly about the Assumption, it also says nothing about Mary’s life after Pentecost or her death, just as it doesn’t say anything about St. Peter’s and St. Paul’s deaths. But protestant evangelical Scot McKnight notes that God has the power to assume a person into heaven, and although we find nothing about Mary’s death or her assumption in the Bible, [does] that mean Mary wasn’t “assumed” into heaven? Obviously not.
Advent and the Family
Advent and the Family Advent is the time that the Christian family focuses ever more on preparing to receive the child Jesus on Christmas day, just as Mary and Joseph did 2000 years ago. Mary and Joseph, relying on their recent marriage in the synagogue, helped each other prepare for the wonderful day when their child-God, the Emmanuel—God-with-us—would come into the world in their humble home. Every family should strive to do the same.
Thanking Christ the King
This year we made November a special month of thanksgiving, thanking God for all those who have gone before us and who have impacted our lives, celebrating All Saints and All Souls Day. Then we thanked God for the many the living who, in quiet or profound ways, have accompanied, shaped, and helped us grow.
Thanking God for his Channels of Grace
November should be a month and season of thanksgiving that culminates on Thanksgiving Day. We are grateful to God for those saints and sinners who are now with our Lord and who have enriched our lives. We wouldn’t be here without them. We also should be grateful to God for the various family, friends, fellow students, and co-workers who are part of forming the person we are today.
Thanking God for Living Friends and Family
I n this month and season of thanksgiving we not only want to thank God for all those in our lives who have died, but also for the many people still alive whom God has placed in our path. It’s often easier to feel grateful for gifts or events that bring us joy in the moment, but this week, let’s try to focus on the people who, in quiet or profound ways, have shaped us and helped us grow. God doesn’t want us to travel life’s journey alone.
Covenant Signs and Memorials
God not only calls us to worship him with praise and Scripture, but also to worship him with sacrifice (as we saw the last two weeks). God also establishes sacred covenant signs that unite the individual to God and to his holy people—his family—just as a wedding ring or the marital embrace unites spouses, renewing and deepening their covenant of love in a holy exchange of grace and affection. This too is true worship. These signs are sacred because God establishes them.
Sacred Covenant Signs
Sacred Covenant Signs God not only uses praise and Scripture to reveal himself and his plan, he calls us to worship him with sacrifice (as we saw last week) and links our worship sacrifices to sacred covenant signs. These signs unite the individual to God and to his holy people—his family—just as a wedding ring or the marital embrace unites spouses, renewing and deepening their covenant of love in a holy exchange of grace and love. This is true worship.
Dear Mom and Dad
We your children look up to you. Set an example for us by not using electronics so much. We need to see that it is possible not to be on the phone or tablet. When you tell me to get off my iPad or phone you should do the same. Kids use electronics too much, but adults do too! Let’s both get off the phone an hour or 2 before bed. It hurts us if you are so focused on your phone that you get mad at us when we ask you a question.
Peace Through the Family
St. James wrote: “What causes wars, and what causes fighting among you? Is it not your passions that are at war in your members? You desire and do not have; so you kill. And you covet and cannot obtain; so you fight and wage war… You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions” (James 4:1-3). We desire peace, but we experience war and violence; we long for harmony, but we encounter dissention and anger.
Gaudete Et Exsultate
I thought it would be worthwhile to return to Pope Francis’ wonderful Apostolic Exhortation On the Call to Holiness in Today’s World—Gaudete et Exsultate, because this should be the goal of each one of us, as well as for the whole Church: holiness means the happiness that comes from union with God that reaches its fulfillment in heaven. Thus the title: Gaudete et exsultate—Rejoice and be Glad.
Dear 4th Grader... - Relevant Radio
This is a letter written by the 5th-8th grade classes to the 4th grade class at St. Mary of the Angels. Dear 4th Grader: Don’t get a phone until you really need one. Phones can be very addicting. You can become so attached to your phone that you might not want to do anything else. Life is short. don’t take for granted what you have in the REAL world before it is too late. Technology is addicting, especially YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram. For some people it is computer games.
Blessed are the Grateful
Gratitude is a real blessing. It acknowledges that the good we have received is not earned by our works, but is a free gift from the giver. We ought to thank God for the gift of life—we didn’t do anything to be born—the gift of our family and friends, teachers, and others who have had a positive influence on us.
Suffering for Truth and Justice (Commandment 8)
Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice’ sake for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 5:10). Pope Francis notes: Unless we wish to sink into an obscure mediocrity, let us not long for an easy life, for “whoever would save his life will lose it” (Matthew 16:25).
Love Rejoices with Others
In his famous discourse on love, St. Paul says that love “does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right” (1 Corinthians 13:6). Pope Francis comments on this: The expression chaírei epì te adikía has to do with a negativity lurking deep within a person’s heart.
Family Peace and Punishment
Pope Francis reminds us that true love—essential for peace—“is not irritable” or easily provoked. [In St. Paul, irritable] refers to a violent reaction within, a hidden irritation that sets us on edge where others are concerned, as if they were troublesome or threatening and thus to be avoided. To nurture such interior hostility helps no one. It only causes hurt and alienation.
Love Excuses and Presumes Goodwill
Blessed are the Merciful… and Peacemakers. How can you make peace in the world (or in the family, workplace, nation, etc.) if we are not merciful, especially if we hold on to resentments and hurts? As St. Paul reminds us, in his Canticle of Love, that love “is not irritable or resentful” (1 Corinthians 13:5). Pope Francis explains: Once we allow ill will to take root in our hearts, it leads to deep resentment.
The Universal Destination of Creation and the Common Good
The Common Good is the good of the whole human family. When a couple marries, the individual spouses no longer seek each one’s individual good independent of the other but must pursue the good of the marriage, the couple, and the family they form. The same is true for the city, state, nation, the Church, and for all mankind—we form God’s family as his sons and daughters, so we must pursue the universal common good in the unity of the human family (see CCC 1911).
Marital Love and Fidelity
Purity of heart is essential for a relationship with God, especially since the pure union of a man and woman in a lifelong marriage reflects God’s image and likeness as a Trinity of persons. All sinful lust distorts marriage and thus distorts God’s image and likeness; and we cannot see God through a distorted image. The Holy Trinity is an infinite, eternal, all-loving, and merciful God.
Extramarital Lies
NOTE: This article features some sensitive topics that may not be suitable for younger readers. Please use discretion. Often young people challenge the Church: “Why must we wait until we are married to have sex? When I hear such questions I like to ask: “Why would you want to?” The young people are taken aback by that, thinking: “Doesn’t everyone want to?” But this question forces them to think and come up with a reasonable answer.
Blessed are the Pure of Heart
Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God (Matthew 5:18). Pope Francis notes: This Beatitude speaks of those whose hearts are simple, pure and undefiled, for a heart capable of love admits nothing that might harm, weaken or endanger that love. The Bible uses the heart to describe our real intentions, the things we truly seek and desire, apart from all appearances. “Man sees the appearance, but the Lord looks into the heart” (Gaudete et Exsultate 83, quoting 1 Samuel 16:7).
St. Josemaría's Love for Freedom
The right to the exercise of freedom, especially in moral and religious matters, is an inalienable requirement of the dignity of the human person. This right must be recognized and protected by civil authority within the limits of common good and public order (CCC 1738). St. Josemaría had a great love for freedom, while insisting that we respect the freedom of others.
Religious Freedom and Obedience to the State
The state has a duty to protect the private and public exercise of religion and each person’s right to religious freedom—no one should ever be forced to act against his conscience: In what way does a person exercise his or her proper right to worship God in truth and in freedom? Every person has the right and the moral duty to seek the truth, especially in what concerns God and his Church.
What It Means to Be 'Virgin of Virgins'
If God fully favored or graced Mary, she needed to be free of sin, of any alienation from God. The passage most associated with the Immaculate Conception is Luke 1:28-30, where Gabriel addresses Mary with the title (or proper name) of full of grace or highly favored one (Greek: Kécharitôméne). Kécharitôméne is the passive perfect participle form of the verb charitoo, expressing a completed action or definitive perfection. The verb’s root is charis, Greek for grace or favor.
Respecting Authority and Civic Laws
Jewish leaders often challenged Jesus, yet he encouraged us to respect all legitimate authority. For example, when the Scribes and Pharisees try to trap our Lord, dragging before him a woman they caught in adultery: should we obey the Law, which commands good Jews to stone such persons, or obey the Roman law, which forbids us from putting anyone to death without their authorization?
Mercy and Obedience
Often people reduce the Fourth Commandment, “Honor thy father and mother,” to a child’s obedience. Certainly, obedience is important, as a child honors his parents and God by obeying them and God’s law. Obedience is the child’s way of saying that he trusts that his parents know and want what is best for him and for the common good of the family: “I trust that you really love me and care for me.” The same is true in obeying God. What are the duties of children toward their parents?
Honoring Our Merciful Father
We honor our parents not because they give us what we want but because they represent our merciful God who gives us his loving and life-giving Spirit: What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him (Luke 11:11-13)?
Love Forgives
Blessed are the Merciful… and Peacemakers. Learning to forgive is key to happiness and holiness in relationships because it is key to peace. We best learn this very Christian response, which is never easy, in the family. As Pope Francis reminds us: When we have been offended or let down, forgiveness is possible and desirable, but no one can say that it is easy. The truth is that “family communion can only be preserved and perfected through a great spirit of sacrifice.
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